Proc.

ESA Annual Meeting on Electrostatics 2008, Paper G2 1

Determination of Particle Charge to

Mass Ratio Distribution in Electrostatic
Applications: A Brief Review
N. Toljic, K. Adamiak, G. S. P. Castle
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Western Ontario
Phone: (1) 519-661-2111
E-mail: ntoljic@uwo.ca

Abstract Charge to mass ratio is a critical parameter that needs to be determined in

order to accurately predict behavior of a charged particle exposed to inertial, electrical and
gravitational forces. The effectiveness of various electrostatic applications depends directly on
this parameter. Much theoretical and experimental research has been devoted to assess the
value of the average charge to mass ratio. However its complex nature limits our ability to
accurately determine its value when particles of varying size are present. In this work a brief
overview of the scientific literature that explores measurement techniques for determination
of charge to mass ratio distribution is presented. Important observations and key aspects
regarding these techniques are outlined and suggestions offered of what is needed to
determine this parameter as a function of particle size.
Index TermsElectrostatic devices, electrostatic measurements, electrostatic processes,
spraying, coating.

I. INTRODUCTION
Charge to mass ratio (Q/M) is a critical parameter that needs to be determined in order to
accurately predict behavior of a particle exposed to inertial, electrical and gravitational
forces. Many electrostatic processes depend directly on this parameter. Much theoretical
and experimental research has been devoted to assess the value of charge to mass ratio of
both solid particles and liquid droplets. However, complex nature of the process limits
our ability to make accurate measurements. Therefore, this phenomenon is still a subject
of ongoing study.
In this work, issues related to prediction of Q/M are discussed and a number of
measurement techniques are briefly outlined to evaluate their applicability to electrostatic
applications and predict their limitations. The following sections give a summary of the
theory and an overview of the scientific literature concerning this matter. Special
attention has been devoted to techniques that tend to concentrate on the stochastic nature
of the drop charge distribution.
Proc. ESA Annual Meeting on Electrostatics 2008, Paper G2 2

II. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

In electrostatic applications, several charging mechanisms may be employed. These
include corona, tribo, conduction and induction charging with the latter two being
predominant.
Conduction charging refers to the process in which a voltage is directly connected to
the conductive or semi-conductive material undergoing atomization. Charge flows from
the voltage supply to the material due to the presence of the electric field formed between
the voltage supply and an adjacent ground.
Induction charging refers to the process in which a voltage is connected to an electrode
which is placed adjacent to a grounded material undergoing atomization. Here an electric
charge opposite in polarity to the supply flows from the ground to the material surface as
induced by the applied electric field. As a particle separates from the bulk material, it
retains charge.
If we assume that the surface charge density is equal for all the particles, a reasonable
conclusion would be that the particle charge is proportional to the particle surface area.
Since the surface area is directly proportional to the square of particle diameter, this
would imply that the particle charge to mass ratio is inversely proportional to the particle
diameter. The expected value of charge to mass ratio is:

qE S 1
= ~ (1)
m V D
where qE is the expected charge of the particle, m is the particle mass, is the liquid
density, is the surface charge density, S is the surface area, V is the particle volume and
D is the diameter of the particle. This theoretical assumption will be referred to as surface
area theory.
The amount of charge that each individual drop can carry is limited. There are
essentially two physical mechanisms limiting the charge that can be retained on the
droplet surface. If a drop is charged so that the inward stress due to surface tension cannot
balance the outward stress due to the electric field, disintegrations of a drop occurs. This
is known as Rayleigh limit:

qR 12 2
= (2)
m D3
where qR is the Rayleigh charge limit, is the electrical permittivity and is the surface
tension of the liquid.
In a further mechanism an avalanche ionization process and localized electrical
discharge can occur at the surface of a charged drop when the drop charge exceeds the
limit known as Paschen limit:

qP 12 0V p
= (3)
m D 2
where qP is the Paschen charge limit and VP is the surface potential.
Proc. ESA Annual Meeting on Electrostatics 2008, Paper G2 3

These limits inform us about the maximum charge to mass ratio that the particle can
have, and nothing about the probability that it has any given charge to mass ratio below
that limit.
To date, there is no systematic theory that would correlate probable particle charge-to-
mass ratio and particle diameter.

III. Measurement Techniques and Results

In his study [1], Brown divided all the measurements of charge to mass ratio into two
basic categories: static and dynamic. Methods involving direct charge measurement are
referred to as static methods. Dynamic methods calculate the charge to mass ratio by
observing the particle motion parameters in the presence of external electric field.
A. Static Methods
The basic instrument for measuring electric charge is the Faraday cup. This consists of a
shielded and isolated inner container which is completely surrounding the charged object.
On the inner wall of the container charge of the opposite polarity is induced. The cup is
connected to an operational amplifier circuit. The magnitude of the charge can be
determined directly from the voltage and capacitance of the operational amplifier. By
dividing the total collected charge by the number of particles sampled, the average
particle charge can be obtained. Faraday cup techniques were used by a number of
authors [2]-[4].
Anestos et al. [5] investigated the dependence of the charge to mass ratio of the spray
stream on fluid and atomization parameters. A flat sheet target was used for the
investigation. A small opening in the center of the target allowed part of the spray to pass
through to a collector. The current to the collector was measured with an electrometer,
while the total current to the sprayed surface was measured with a microameter. The
spray was allowed to pass through the opening for a period of one minute and then the
weight of the fluid collected was measured. From the measurements of the collected mass
and the current, the average charge to mass ratio was determined. The spray gun could be
moved vertically and horizontally, so that sectors of the entire spray pattern could be
scanned by the collector. The apparatus used in order to measure the size and number
density of the sprayed paint particles consisted of a grounded metal disc with the front
surface coated with gelatin. The disc was rotating behind the target. Paint droplets
produced spots in the gelatin and their size could be accurately measured by photographs,
knowing the ratio between the actual diameter and the spot diameter.
Maximum specific charge (due to Rayleigh limit) that the spray stream can have is
much higher than the specific charge which was measured experimentally. From the size
distribution, an estimate was made for the maximum charge the spray stream could attain.
The maximum charge was calculated for the 24 groups of the 420 drops whose size was
measured. Even the peak measured specific charge was only 1/8 of the maximum
possible specific charge.
Increasing the fan air velocity and mass of fluid delivery was seen to flatten out the
charge distribution among the particles. This was an expected result. The experiment also
showed that there is an optimum value of conductivity at which the specific charge of the
spray stream exhibits a maximum.
Proc. ESA Annual Meeting on Electrostatics 2008, Paper G2 4

Jones and Thong [6] discussed the electrical dispersion of a jet of kerosene into a spray
of monodisperse droplets. Pressurized air was used to force the liquid from the reservoir
through a fine stainless steel capillary to which a high voltage is applied. This generated a
conical spray of fine droplets which were deposited on the grounded plate. The flow
system was designed to form a steady flow. The Q/M ratio was calculated as a ratio of
total current measured at the plate and total liquid flow. This Q/M ratio was found to be
inversely proportional to the radius, and size of the particles ranged from 40 m to
120 m. This agrees well with the surface area theory.
Tang and Gomez [7] performed an experimental investigation on the feasibility of
using an electrospray to produce monodisperse droplets of water in the diameter range 2-
10 m. Because of the high surface tension of water, the establishment of stable sprays
required the use of a sheet flow of carbon dioxide to prevent breakdown in the gas
surrounding the spray and its destabilizing consequences on the electrospray
performance. The experimental setup consisted of a stainless steel capillary charged at a
high electric potential, and a grounded electrode positioned perpendicularly to the
capillary. The droplet charge level was determined by measuring the total current
collected by the ground electrode. Since an electrospray operating in cone-jet mode
generates a very narrow size distribution, the volume charge density of the electrospray
was well represented by a mean value calculated from the ratio between the total electric
current and the total liquid flow rate. Authors concluded that the volume charge density
varies with the inverse of the droplet diameter. This also agrees well with the surface area
theory.
Ye and Domnick [8] presented a numerical method for the calculation of the electric
field with space charge in electrostatic powder coating with a corona spray gun and used
a suction-type Faraday cup apparatus to measure the Q/M ratio. The suction tube with a
diameter of 10 mm was mounted in the centre of the target. The spray gun could be
moved in a horizontal direction. Particles with full size distribution were sprayed.
Their calculated charge-to-mass profile based on Pauthenier theory [9] showed a good
agreement with the experiment for the particle radius less than 60 m. This is a good
agreement with surface area theory. For particles with larger diameter, the experimental
charge-to-mass values stayed constant which differs from the theory. They concluded that
this was probably due to the experimental uncertainty for the large particles. From the
obtained results, it was evident that the sensitivity of this instrument decreased with
increasing mean particle diameter.
B. Dynamic Methods
Johnston [10] described a semi automatic method for determination of the distribution of
the magnitude and polarity of the charge on airborne dust. The aerosol is sampled through
an electrified electrode with the flow split perpendicular to the electric field direction.
Flow rates through both exit parts need to be approximately the same. This is achieved by
connecting one to a vacuum line and the other to an optical particle counter which counts
the numbers of particles in a selected size range. His plotted data shows linear
dependence of the particle charge on particle diameter. This implies that the Q/M ratio is
inversely proportional to the square of radius. Particles diameter was measured in the
range between 0.5 m and 8 m.
Gillespie and Langstroth [11] measured electric charges on the aerosol particles. A
sheet of air drew the particles through a transverse electric field between two microscope
Proc. ESA Annual Meeting on Electrostatics 2008, Paper G2 5

slides. Since the charge and size of a particle determined the distance of travel in the
direction of air flow before deposition on a slide, a microscopic assessment of the number
and sizes permitted calculation of the charge distribution. The relationship between
particle charge and particle radius was linear which infers that Q/M was inversely
proportional to the square of radius. All the measured particles had a radius below 2 m.
Pfeifer and Hendricks [12] developed a relationship between droplet Q/M ratio and
droplet radius for electro hydrodynamically sprayed droplets. Probability distributions of
the Q/M ratio and the droplet radius were derived as modified Maxwell-Boltzmann
functions under the assumption that the unstable liquid mass disrupts into equally sized
and charged particles so that the system energy tends toward a minimum value. Particle
Q/M ratio was found to be inversely proportional to the particle radius to the power of
1.5. Experimental verification showed good agreement for octoil and glycerine and
relatively good agreement with Krohns data for Woods metal [13] where the radius
exponent was 1.7. In these data particle radii were between 0.5 m and 10 m.
Juan et al. [14] investigated the distributions of charge and diameter of drops emitted
from electrified liquid cones in the cone-jet mode. The liquid came from a reservoir at
high pressure through a stainless steel needle which is charged to several kilovolts. The
Taylor cone produced at the tip of the needle generates a cloud of charged droplets inside
a stainless steel chamber. Two of the opposing openings are sealed with glass windows in
order to provide optical access. One opening was for the microscope and the other for the
illumination of the Taylor cone with a continuous light source. Facing the needle is the
sampler. A differential mobility analyzer (DMA) first samples the spray drops, selects
those whose electrical mobility is within a narrow band, and either measures the
associated current or passes them to a second DMA instrument (aerosizer) through an
orifice by pumps. When the current through the cone is measured, the spray chamber and
the sampling tube are connected directly to an electrometer. The current is monitored at
the end of each run to ensure that the conditions remain unchanged during the
experiment. The mobility of the drops could be measured in the DMA. Droplet charge
was then uniquely determined by measuring droplet mobility and droplet diameter. For a
given cone-jet parameters, the distribution of charge for the main (primary) drops is 2.5
times broader than the distribution of diameters, and ratio of maximum and minimum
charge is 4. Particle diameters were in the range of 0.65 m to 1.35 m. It is stated that the
charge of a droplet is proportional to its diameter to the power of 3 which means that the
charge to mass ratio is not a function of particle diameter.
Chen et al. [15] summarized the literature data on particle Q/M in gas-solids fluidized
beds directly measured after steady state conditions have been reached. They showed that
the experimental values were consistently lower than the maximum Q/M predicted by
Paschens limit. They explained that this was likely associated with low operating gas
velocities used in most experiments, which limited the build up of charge on particles, as
well as with the leakage of charges from the fluidized bed through the wall.
Orme et al. [16] observed the formation of highly uniform charged molten metal drops
from a capillary stream. The conductive molten liquid was grounded and a positive
periodic potential was applied to the charging electrode. Molten metal droplets were
charged by electrostatic induction. The molten metal jet passed through the charge
electrode that surrounded the jet at the point of droplet formation. As drops were formed
from the continuous column of molten metal, a negative charge was induced on the drop.
Proc. ESA Annual Meeting on Electrostatics 2008, Paper G2 6

Charged droplets passed through the space between the deflection electrodes and were
deposited on the substrate. Q/M ratio of the droplets was determined by measuring the
deflection of the droplets trajectories. This ratio was inversely proportional to the square
of radius. Size of the particles ranged from 375 m to 400 m. The authors showed
excellent agreement between their experimental values and Schneiders theoretical
predictions [17].
Kulon, Malyan and Balachandran [18] used a noninvasive method of measurement of
the charge level on a population of particles by combining the Phase Doppler
Anemometry technique and high-resolution computer-controlled traversing system.
The Phase Doppler Anemometry technique is a nonintrusive optical method for
simultaneous measurement of the size as well as the velocity of spherical particles. The
principle of the Phase Doppler Anemometry is based on light scattering from two-plane
light beams incident on the particle. Measurement region within the spray is formed by
the intersection of the laser beams. Each pair of beams is coherent and polarized so that
when they intersect an interference pattern of light and dark fringes is formed. The phase
shift between the signals from different detectors is proportional to the size of the
spherical particle.
The velocity measurement is based on the Doppler Effect. When two coherent and
polarized laser beams intersect an interference pattern of light and dark fringes is formed.
As a droplet passes through the measurement region it scatters light at a frequency based
on its velocity normal to the fringes and the spacing of the fringes. A receiving device
measures the frequency of this scattering signal and the spacing of the fringes is known
based on the wavelength of the laser light and the angle between the beams. Knowing the
Doppler frequency, frequency of the scattered signal and the spacing of the fringes, the
particle velocity can be calculated.
The PDA system was used to track the motion of charged particles in air in the
presence of a dc electric field within the space between the parallel-plate electrodes.
Charged particles exposed to the external electric field and situated in a viscous
medium experience two types of forces exerted on them: external electrical force and
drag force as a result of a relative motion of a particle in the air. After the relaxation time,
a particle attains mechanical equilibrium and reaches a steady state velocity relative to the
medium. By equating drag resistance force and the electrical force in the direction of the
particle drift velocity, knowing the size and motion parameters the charge on an
individual particle can be calculated.
It should be noted that space charge contribution to the overall electric field was not
considered. The particle charge, as expected, was seen to increase with increasing particle
size. Their experimental results showed that an average charge-to-mass ratio is 0.24 C/g.
Radius for all the particles was below 4 m. Charge to mass ratio is inversely proportional
to the square of radius. Radius exponent in this dependency is greater than expected.
Gemci et al. [19] described an experimental setup to obtain the individual droplet
charge to mass ratio based on the measurements of the drop size and velocity by Phase
Doppler Interferometer. Drops were accelerated to terminal velocity in a known uniform
electric field after they had passed through a small hole in the deposition electrode. The
phase Doppler Interferometer system was positioned to measure sizes and velocities of
individual drops passing through the region beyond the grounded electrode.
Proc. ESA Annual Meeting on Electrostatics 2008, Paper G2 7

Particles reach the equilibrium state and terminal velocity when electrical,
gravitational and viscous drag force are in balance. Equating forces acting upon a particle
yields the particle charge. The charge to mass ratio of each individual drop is computed.
The distribution of charge to mass ratios is well correlated with the Paschen charge
limiting theory. A line that marks the upper limit of the distribution coincides well with
the Paschen line and all drops in the measured distribution have charge to mass ratios
below but within one order of magnitude of the Paschen maximum. It should be noted
that the space charge density effect on the overall electric field is not considered. Charge
to mass ratio is inversely proportional to the square of radius which means that the radius
exponent is greater than our assumed value.
Mazumder et al. [20]-[21] applied a laser-beam instrument called the electrical-single
particle aerodynamics relaxation time (E-SPART) analyzer for measuring aerodynamic
size and electrostatic charge distribution of particles in real-time and on a single particle
basis. Direct application of this was used to characterize toner particles in electro-
photography. As the particle passes through the sensing volume located at the centre of
the relaxation chamber in the direction normal to the plane containing two laser beams it
experiences acoustic excitations that cause particle oscillations. If the particle is charged
it experiences another velocity component due to the presence of dc field. From the
values of phase lag and electrical migration velocity particle charge is calculated. The
main disadvantage of this technique is limited time resolution. Average count rate is
around 100 particles per second. Size distribution ranged from 2 m to 20 m and charge-
to-mass ratio was below 20 C/g. Charge to mass ratio is inversely proportional to the
square of radius. Radius exponent is greater than expected value.
Q/M ratio distribution measured by E-SPART at the downstream of the lung model
[22] was, also, inversely proportional to the square of radius.
Wong and Shrimpton [23] determined the electrical charge distribution amongst the
drops by post-processing Phase Doppler Anemometry data for electrostatically atomized
liquid sprays. Extending the technique of Schwar et al. [24], a method was developed of
defining mean and root mean square drop charge by post processing method of data
obtained from Phase Doppler Anemometry measurements. Axial and radial velocities and
diameters of individual drops are available for a set of measurement locations.
Reasonable assumptions were made in order to investigate the relationship between
the drop charge and the droplet diameter. It is assumed that droplet charge of the mth drop
size class varies with diameter such that:

q m = ADmn (4)

where q m is the drop charge of the mth drop size class, Dm is the diameter of the mth
drop size class,
A is parameter constant for all the drops and n is real number constant for each drop size
class.
By equalizing the radial components of the forces acting on the droplet with the above
given assumption, one can graphically obtain values of the unknown parameter n for each
measured point. To obtain an estimate of A relative and actual volumetric spray specific
charges are compared. With obtained estimates for n for each data point and estimate for
Proc. ESA Annual Meeting on Electrostatics 2008, Paper G2 8

A for each data set, all drops are re processed for all measurement locations, for each data
set to find the mean and standard deviation of drop charge as a function of size.
Following this method, it is found that drop charge does not exceed Rayleigh limit for
nearly all mean charges. As no explicit limit is imposed during post processing, this
confirms the applicability of the proposed method.
Processed data show that the values of the drop charge are proportional to droplet
diameter to the power of exponent which varies in range of 2.1 to 2.9 for the spray of
specific charge 1.2C/m3. The lower limit of this range agrees well with surface area
theory and the upper limit with that of the results reported above [14].

IV. CONCLUSION
In this work a brief overview of scientific literature that explores measurement techniques
for determination of charge to mass ratio distribution in electrostatic applications is
presented. Important observations and key aspects regarding these techniques are noted.
It is shown that the conflicting results exist for the dependence of charge to mass ratio on
particle size and it is suggested that this area needs further experimental and theoretical
research.

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